Polyester is a 1981 comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It was filmed in Waters' native Baltimore, Maryland, and features a gimmick called "Odorama", whereby viewers could smell what they saw on screen through scratch and sniff cards. The film is a satirical look at suburban life involving divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, foot fetishism, and the Religious Right. Polyester tells the story of housewife Francine Fishpaw , whose life is crumbling around her in her upper middle class suburban Baltimore... home. Her husband, Elmer , is a polyester-clad lout who owns an X-rated theater, causing anti-pornography protesters to picket the Fishpaws' house. She also states that "All the neighborhood women spit at me" whenever she is at the Shopping Mall. Francine's children are Lu-Lu , her spoiled, slutty daughter, and Dexter , her delinquent, glue-sniffing son who derives illicit pleasure from stomping on women's feet.
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